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POLITICO 44

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) recommended that eight House Democrats sit on the Wall Street conference committee, saying in a memo Tuesday that the group will be “more the agents of collective decision-makers than autonomous deciders.”

Frank also recommended a schedule to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that includes at least seven sessions that could be televised on C-SPAN, starting with an organizing meeting June 9. The committee could hold five meetings on “substantive issues” before wrapping up June 25, according to the timeline confirmed by Frank’s office.

Frank expects the House to pass the conference report by June 29, giving the Senate several days to finish the bill before the July 4 recess.

In the memo, Frank downplayed the ability of the House conferees to stray too far from what the administration and the Democratic leaders want out of the bill and acknowledged that the need to hold 60 votes in the Senate “will be something of a constraint.”

“We have an administration that feels strongly about this, and I expect that the House leadership will be engaged more than they were last year when health care took up much of their time and when they paid us the compliment of trusting us,” Frank wrote in the memo. “Their greater involvement will not imply a lack of trust but simply the fact that we are down to a few very important issues where the administration will be strongly expressing its view.”

Frank took pains to detail his displeasure with “picking and choosing” members to serve, saying it would “be impossible to do on any rational basis." But he said he settled on a formula based largely on seniority: the six subcommittee chairmen and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwomen of the Joint Economic Committee.

“I believe I have criterion that does not reflect either badly — or well for that matter — on anyone,” Frank wrote.

The group includes Reps. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Maxine Waters of California, Melvin Watt of North Carolina, Gregory Meeks of New York, and Dennis Moore of Kansas.

Frank will round out the House delegation on the conference committee, which he will also chair.

Frank said he would meet regularly with the Democratic Caucus throughout the melding process, perhaps once a week or more, “to get a sense of all of the members on the issues that are before us.”

Frank made the recommendations to Pelosi, who is expected to formally appoint the conference committee members after the Memorial Day recess.

Wonderful, a pervert who along with Chris Dodd were directly responsible for the mortgage crisis and the ensuing cascading financial meltdown of the late great USA, appoints a racists (Waters, Guiterrez) and communists to his little panel.

Wow, Waters has to be the last person who should be on this type of a committee, she is dumber that dirt. And this nit-wit Frank, who with Dodd, caused the real estate collapse and bankrupted Freddie and Fannie, need to be voted out of office post haste. God save this Republic , this crew will take us all down faster than we are.

do you want to hear a big JOKE????? Barney the crooked creep wants to see Rep. Pjou's birth certificate. Hey Barney, let start with Obamey OK. Why have you never asked to see his???? Miserable demon worms!

Frank took pains to detail his displeasure with “picking and choosing” members to serve, saying it would “be impossible to do on any rational basis." But he said he settled on a formula based largely on seniority:

Same-O! This is exactly how you become a Chairman, no experience required just have to be the longest serving dog with your party in power! How about doing something different like putting a few economists and finance experts (unlike yourself) on the committee or are you afraid that might lead to answers that work and you'd loose Wall St campaign donations?